A U.S.-based nonprofit organization that has helped "social entrepreneurs" around the world opened a Japanese office this month, its first branch in East Asia, with the goal of creating a similar community in a country where the concept itself is little understood.
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, founded in the United States in 1980, has provided financial and professional support to people who combine social service and business entrepreneurship. It now has a network of nearly 3,000 people worldwide.
At a news conference Monday, Ashoka's founder and CEO, Bill Drayton, said Japan has high potential for fostering social entrepreneurs with new ideas, because "there is no other country in the world that has grown as much as Japan has in the last 150 years," he said.